Hasta La Gadget!

The new LG smartphone tipped to be Google’s next Nexus has shown up in the wild again, with a fresh prototype of the LG E960 “Mako” surfacing in Belarus. The shots, from Russian-language site Onliner, give us the clearest view of the new Nexus to-date, as well as some spec-chatter: a 4.7-inch 1280 x 768 display along with a quadcore 1.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor.

They’re hooked up with 2GB of RAM and 8GB of internal storage. That latter part has proved contentious, with suggestions that Google has instructed LG to leave out expandable memory so as to cut costs and encourage the adoption of cloud storage services like the search giant’s own Google Drive.

It will also supposedly have a fixed battery, which cannot be replaced by the individual user. The main camera runs at 8-megapixels, unlike the 13-megapixels some versions of the LG Optimus G will ship with, though that makes for a smoother back as the higher-resolution sensor does demand a slight bulge.

OS is currently Android 4.1.2, though the new Nexus is expected to arrive running Android 4.2. According to the latest rumors, Google and LG will unveil the new phone officially on October 29, potentially named the “Nexus G”.

[via Engadget]

LG’s new Nexus E960 caught in the wild is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

There has been quite a bit of fuss lately over the quality of Apple’s Maps app. While it certainly was touted to be a powerful program at its unveiling, reports across the web has suggested that it leaves much to be desired. That being said, a recent survey conducted by a SEO ranking company has found that a pretty surprising 74% of those they surveyed said that they were fine with the Maps app. It should be noted that out of the 1,100 respondents, only 200 were chosen because they had iOS 6 and the Maps app. Granted this is a pretty small sampling, their response was considered significant due to their diversity.

Out of the 200 people they surveyed, 50.7% said that the issues surrounding Maps had not affected them personally, while 23.3% considered the app to be good enough for their needs, while 17.2% said that the issues were annoying but was not a deal breaker. The remaining percent of the users surveyed weren’t too happy about the Maps app, with some saying that it could affect their buying decision, while the rest said it put them off from buying another iPhone in the future. Apple is currently working on improving its Maps app although given the amount of data and years that Google has on them, we expect it might be a while before Apple finally plays catch up.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Apple reportedly knew about Maps problems prior to launch, Apple to get retail store employees to help improve their Maps app [Rumor],

We spend quite a bit of time on our smartphones these days, perhaps more so when compared to feature phones due to our smartphones being able to do many things. Activities such as browsing the web while commuting is a perfectly common sight, which means that websites need to not only think about how their pages look like on a desktop computer, but also how it might look like on a mobile device like a smartphone. Google has indeed thought about that and has since redesigned its mobile homepage.

Launching your mobile phone’s browser and surfing to Google’s website should yield a new design, which rather interestingly looks like a compressed version of the desktop version of Google. It features an options menu to the top left which when pressed, will reveal a sidebar which we can’t help but feel is reminiscent to Facebook’s own sidebar in its app. If you have signed in to your Google+ account, it will display your profile photo along with a box that will inform you of notifications. It’s not a super huge deal but for those who rely on Google frequently, hopefully this redesign will have made your surfing a little bit more convenient.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Google’s Eric Schmidt believes that Apple should have kept Google Maps, Google+ app update supports iPhone 5 now, delivers new Android widgets,

Netflix has been embroiled in a lawsuit with deaf-rights groups since 2010. The deaf-rights groups sued Netflix because some videos offered on the streaming service lacked close captioning making them unwatchable to the deaf or hard of hearing. Netflix has now announced that it has settled that lawsuit with the rights group and has agreed to caption all videos on the service.

All of the videos on the Netflix streaming service will be close captioned by 2014. Netflix plans to have 90% of its videos captioned in 2013. Netflix claims that it already has captions available for 82% of the videos on service according to court documents.

In the settlement, Netflix agreed to put captions on all newly added content within 30 days by the year 2014. By the year, 2015 Netflix promises to caption the content within 14 days of adding it. By 2016, Netflix says all new content will be captioned within seven days of adding it to its library.

The agreement ends a class-action lawsuit brought against Netflix in 2010, and Netflix will pay $755,000 in legal fees. The original class-action suit claimed that Netflix’s website was considered “a place of public accommodation” and was out of compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act. Netflix originally tried to get the case thrown out, but the case moved forward last June.

[via ArsTechnica]

Netflix settles suit and will caption all videos by 2014 is written by Shane McGlaun & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

A lot of major technology companies out there are very concerned with being green. The concern with being green for many of these companies extends far beyond using green building processes and components in their product offerings. For many of these electronics companies the green push extends all the way to the packaging they use to ship their products around the world.

A good example is Apple, and the biodegradable packaging that it uses for some components in its fifth-generation iPod Touch and the seventh generation iPod nano. Specifically, the little holder that cradles the EarPod apparently turns to a pile of mush when exposed to water. According to Mashable, these products marked the first time that packaging Apple uses completely breaks down when exposed to water.

Note that the packaging doesn’t entirely melt away to nothing. What you end up with is a pulpy mush that looks akin to a sheet of notebook paper left out in the rain. Interestingly, it only takes a few minutes of exposure to water for the EarPod holder to break down. You might think that Apple would be proud of easily biodegradable packaging, but apparently, Cupertino is playing coy.

Mashable reports that Apple wouldn’t confirm the findings and simply pointed them to a page that speaks about “renewable tapioca paper foam material.” Certainly most of us are going to run our packaging underwater to dissolve them, but when the stuff ends up in a landfill, it’s nice to know that a decent rainstorm will pretty much melt the package away.

[via Mashable]

iPod EarPod holder package turns to a pile of mush in water is written by Shane McGlaun & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.